Our publisher here at Clear Sky, Chris Coward, once told me a story of the ultimate American sports package he had purchased as a special treat.

Over the course of an incredible sporting weekend, the plan was to take in the top four ‘American Sports’: Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey and American Football.

It was all planned for the New York area, and in true American style, the quality quartet were all cancelled because of Hurricane Sandy. Disappointing for Chris and his comrades, but it did get me thinking about the appeal of these sports that have only travelled with moderate success.

They are obviously not the staple British diet of football, rugby, cricket et al but, as a sports fan, it is my duty to understand and appreciate all sport, even those not played on the cold playgrounds and muddy fields of PE lessons in the UK.

Of course, our friends from across the pond excel in a multitude of arenas more familiar to the British fan. They have brilliant participants in golf, tennis, athletics, gymnastics, swimming, winter sports and more.

But the four in focus today are the favourites in American households, so are they any good to watch, or even play?

Going straight for the diamond jugular, baseball would be bottom of my list. It is, as us Brits smugly conclude, a game of glorified rounders. That’s not to belittle rounders, a sport loved by many, but it’s not something that ranks particularly high on the skill-ometer.

We have advanced rounders to softball in some clubs across the UK, and definitely a growing sport. A number of Devon cricket clubs have female softball teams, acting as a bridge into the red ball game of wickets and pads.

However, as a viewing spectacle, I struggle with baseball.

In truth, the longest I’ve managed to sit down and enjoy a game was glimpses in the movie ‘League of Their Own’. Madonna striking out to Geena Davis was pretty good fun, especially when you throw in a tipsy Tom Hanks.

BT (TNT) Sports has plenty of Major League Baseball on offer, and I have managed a brief stay when flicking through the sporting channels. While it is not my sporting cup of tea, or bucket of vanilla coke, you cannot help but admire the speed of action when it does get going.

The fastest ever baseball pitch registered at 105.8mph in 2010. Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds was the man with the electric arm and a ball hurled at that pace gives the batter a reaction time of around 0.4 seconds.

To put that into a more familiar context, a cricket ball bowled at 90mph gives the batsman 0.45 seconds to respond, so pretty close.

In addition to the extraordinary pace, those wielding a baseball bat must also contend with balls curving and dipping, as the pitcher scrolls through their box of tricks. Once contact is made with the bat, the pace with which fielders throw the ball to various bases is bewildering.

Yes, they are aided by a giant leather hand for catching, but it is still pretty impressive.

As for global appeal, baseball has made the journey beyond American shores, with Japan a huge centre of popularity for the sport. It is a game also widely played in the Caribbean, Central and South America…but, sorry baseball fans, still not a great watch on my box.

Third on my personal list is basketball, another game of astonishing speed and skill, but is it great TV?

I went to one of those local schools in the 90s where the sporting policy amounted to: if you’re in the football team, you’re in every team. Now standing at an imposing 5ft 8in, that means I was thrust into a basketball team with severe physical limitations.

We took the kids to Disneyland in Florida a few years ago, accompanied by a group of friends and their little people. One day, strolling around the Magic Kingdom, sweating profusely, I saw my mate staring upwards in wonder. He stands at 6ft 1in, so more likely to slam dunk than me.

What had he seen? Had Goofy grown wings?

Instead, his gaze was fixed on two chaps, who had a posse following them around, asking for selfies and signatures. I have no clue who these gents were but, given they were much closer to seven foot than six, I’m guessing basketball was their game.

It’s not all about height in basketball, although it obviously helps. The game also requires fabulous agility, fitness and skill. Watching the Harlem Globetrotters was great fun as a kid but a regular attachment to the sport never developed.

Where basketball can get really exciting is those tight finishes, some modern giant landing a three-pointer in the final seconds, but I have to confess it is nothing more than a passing clip on Sky Sports News.

And, as for basketball at the Olympics, a tad pointless. Guess what, the USA win pretty much every time. Add beer pong to the Olympic roster and the UK might have their dominant sport!

Before deciding on the top two, a quick note on the bewildering wages in American sports. Top baseball star Shohei Ohtani picks up a tidy $70m per year, Steph Curry earned $55m for his basketball exploits, NFL star Patrick Mahomes has a 10-year $450m contract with the Kansas City Chiefs and ice hockey hero Nathan MacKinnon is just shy of $50m per year.

Back to the list and my runner-up is the NHL. One major bonus to ice hockey is the fact this sport has a familiar scoring method, a ball (sort of) hits a net.

It also has the mystery of being a sport I have never tried and never will. Most of us have swung a bat, pretending rounders is baseball, or attempted a three-pointer, but very few have taken to a UK ice rink for a game of hockey.

Unlike our first two sports, Ice Hockey is far more competitive on the global stage: Canada, Russia, Sweden and a few others are just as strong as the States in both men and women.

As a viewing spectacle, ice hockey is brilliant fun. The game is slick, aggressive and relentless. In North America, the ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup, the top prize in the NHL and surely the biggest trophy in all sport.

But what makes ice hockey so awesome is the fact a good old scrap is highly encouraged. Amid the global tensions created by Donald Trump’s politics of dropping verbal bombs, the USA and Canada are not currently the best of friends.

So, in a recent international ice hockey match between the two nations, the game started and literally within ten seconds, players had removed gloves and helmets and set about an all-out punch-up.

The crowd roared, the umpires paid little attention and the commentators loved it. Scraps are part of ice hockey, it is virtually encouraged, and any sport where scores are settled with a kebab-shop brawl has to be great fun.

Just imagine the same thing happening in the Premier League…Gary Lineker would have a stroke, Micah Richards would stop laughing and the guilty players sent to The Hague!

For all combative excitement of the NHL, American Football is my top sport of choice from across the pond.

I must confess to being a fairly recent convert to the NFL but I’m hooked. Yes, it goes on forever, but as someone generally working from home, the NFL rivals snooker and cricket as perfect background viewing.

It doesn’t require full attention all of the time, but the moments of genuine action are breathtaking. When they show a ‘play’ in slow motion, you get to appreciate the extraordinary accuracy and precision of a quarterback.

These guys throw a ball into the smallest window of collection for a receiver running at full speed, surrounded by covering defenders, and the quarterback does all this in the knowledge that as soon as he releases the ball, he will be munched by blokes of immense size.

At the start of the last football season, then Burnley manager Vincent Kompany (6ft 3in) conducted an interview next to NFL star J.J. Watt, an investor in the football club. Watt literally dwarfed Kompany…the NFL guys are huge.

As well as the quarterbacks and the monsters, those with running duties in the NFL are at Olympic speed. Current Superbowl champions Philadelphia Eagles boast running back Saquon Barkley, who has recorded a 100m time of 10.9 seconds.

The NFL is action-packed and any sport that encourages fans to guzzle gallons of beer and eat giant cheeseburgers deserves recognition….a step up from soggy pies and Bovril!